where does a cross with symbols on it come from?read on for details...?

Question

a cross with a hand ccoming down from the top, the left side has a symbol that looks like the last letter of the greek alphabet or an upside down horseshoe,the right side has an A. the bottom has a angel or possibly a dove an the center has a lamb with a flag behind itblood coming from its neck into a cup ,from the looks of it it is possible to be egyptian ,greek ,If your into this stuff and know about it ,please fill me in,or if you know any sites i can research .thanx

I am not a worshipper of items,but i have found this cross and it looks pretty old ,I would like to find out about it,is that a sin?
anyhow i forgot to mention the flag has a picture of a small sword on it

Answer 1

I don't know about the hand - maybe the hand of God? If so, then it's probably Hebrew, originating from the story in which God writes his warning on the wall and Daniel interprets it for the people.

The alpha and the omega are obviously from the Greek - Jesus said that he was the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

The dove is the Holy Spirit, who appeared in this form during Christ's baptism, according to the Gospel.

The lamb is symbolic of Jesus and comes from the Hebrews - Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, expiation for our sins. The flag is a symbol of Christ's victory over sin and death. Together, this symbol originated in fifth century Rome.

The cup and the blood are specifically Christian. According to the Gospel, Jesus was pierced in his side during the crucifixion, and blood and water poured out. Tradition has it that one of the apostles (John?) took the Holy Grail (last supper cup) and caught the blood.

Answer 2

Ok, totally from a RC pov.

a cross with a hand ccoming down from the top (God's hand)

, the left side has a symbol that looks like the last letter of the greek alphabet or an upside down horseshoe,the right side has an A. (Alpha and Omega, for God said, he was the beginning and the end)

the bottom has a angel or possibly a dove an the center (dove, represents teh Holy spirit)

has a lamb with a flag behind itblood coming from its neck into a cup (to represent Christ (the lamb) and his sacrifice to us)

Answer 3

It is a piously decorated Catholic crucifix. These were very popular during the late 19th - early 20th Centuries. All of the symbols are intended to enhance the experience of contemplating Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. The hand represent God the Father (who made the world). The dove is the Holy Spirit. The Lamb is from Revelation and represents Christ at his "wedding feast". The Alpha and Omega represent God's sufficiency ("I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End.")

There are actual framed, glassed in tableaus to be hung on the wall with dozens of symbols: the pitcher used to wash Pilate's hands, the whip used to beat Jesus, the scourging pillar, the rooster that crowed, the hammer that drove the nails, etc. It's a combination portable mini-shrine and teaching aid, designed to remind the observer of the whole Passion story and what it signifies. Some crosses have a skull-and-crossbones below Jesus' feet. This represents Adam's skill, said in pious legend to have been buried there, but indicating that Jesus is a new Adam. (No, I don't know how the pirates got hold of it.)

There's nothing occult about it. It's just a 3D illustration of scripture.

Answer 4

I can tell you what it all means, but not where it comes from. The hand is a another name for the Holy Spirit, The Hand of God. The A and horseshoe is Alpha and Omega, for God says "I am the alpha and the omega" beginning and end. The lamb is Jesus, the slain lamb from Revalations. The blood is the Eucharsist.

Answer 5

It sounds familiar... you don't have a link to a picture, do you?

The dove often represents the Holy Spirit. The particular lamb is the "Lamb of God" symbol. The Greek letters sound to me to be Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, which would be God.

Answer 6

hi Lioness, i tried to discover "objectified" and "objectification" in the dictionary and no exhilaration. properly, i'm no longer precisely constructive I understand your queston, yet imagine i'd have a concept. besides, have you ever heard of the "bell curve"? it really is a curve that is formed like a bell and does a sturdy job of representing information. As for beauty, at one end of the curve we've the least perfect and at the different end the most. an same might want to be genuine for income ... poorest on one area and richest on the different. in the technique the bell we've each and every of the conventional individuals. i imagine what you're putting forward is genuine, yet purely purely a actuality of existence. we've the entire spectrum for both genders. As for why adult males do not protest ... i wager they retain in mind that that is purely the way issues are and protests are not likely to regulate something. wish this permits!

Answer 7

this might not be the specific question youre looking for.....but the cross as a ymbol is actually extremly ancient. they forund crosses in mesoamerica before the spaniards destroyed everything. theyres forms of crosses from ancient egypt and ancient sumeria....and even some pagan traditions. its a symbol of opposing forces working together. mostly male and female.

Answer 8

well I dont know I dont worship crosses it is Jesus I look at when I see a cross...but he is now in heaven with our father so I dont have to look at the cross noone more I just have to remember what he did for me on it,,,Praise you Jesus!!!

Answer 9

The Encyclopedia Americana, however, speaks of “its ancient usage by both Hindus and Buddhists in India and China, and by the Persians, Assyrians, and Babylonians.” Similarly, Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, (1969 edition) says that the cross “was an emblem to which religious and mystical meanings were attached long before the Christian era.”

Indeed, there is no evidence that early Christians used the cross in their worship. During the early days of Christianity, it was the pagan Romans who used the cross! Says The Companion Bible: “These crosses were used as symbols of the Babylonian sun-god . . . and are first seen on a coin of Julius Caesar, 100-44 B.C., and then on a coin struck by Caesar’s heir (Augustus), 20 B.C.” The Roman nature-god Bacchus was at times represented with a headband containing a number of crosses.

How, then, did the cross become the symbol of Christendom?

Constantine and the Cross

In 312 C.E., Constantine, ruling the area now known as France and Britain, headed out to war against his brother-in-law, Maxentius, of Italy. En route he reportedly saw a vision—a cross on which were the words “Hoc vince,” meaning, “By this conquer.” After his victory, Constantine made the cross the standard of his armies. When Christianity later became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the cross became the symbol of the church.

There is also little evidence that the type of cross Constantine “saw” really represented the instrument used to put Christ to death. Stamped on many coins Constantine subsequently had minted are X-shaped crosses with a “P” superimposed. (See illustration.) An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, by W. E. Vine, says: “As for the Chi, or X, which Constantine declared he had seen in a vision leading him to champion the Christian faith, that letter was the initial of the word ‘Christ’ [in the Greek language] and had nothing to do with ‘the Cross,’” that is, as an instrument of execution. In fact, this style of cross is nearly identical to the pagan symbol for the sun.

Why, then, was the cross so easily accepted by “Christians”? Vine’s Dictionary continues: “By the middle of the 3rd cent. A.D. the churches had either departed from, or had travestied, certain doctrines of the Christian faith. In order to increase the prestige of the apostate ecclesiastical system pagans were received into the churches apart from regeneration by faith, and were permitted largely to retain their pagan signs and symbols. Hence the Tau or T, in its most frequent form, with the cross-piece lowered, was adopted to stand for the cross of Christ.”

The Evolution of the Cross

Was it love for Christ that caused the cross, at this late time, to become such an object of veneration? The Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics says: “With the 4th cent[ury] magical belief began to take a firmer hold within the Church.” As with a magic charm, simply making the sign of the cross was thought to be “the surest defence against demons, and the remedy for all diseases.” Superstitious use of the cross continues to this day.

Over the years, some 400 different styles of crosses developed. At first, Christ himself was not portrayed. Rather, a youth holding a jeweled cross would be depicted. Later, a lamb was included. In 691 C.E., the council in Trullo made “official” a cross showing the bust of a young man, instead of a lamb, over the cross. In time this developed into the crucifix—a cross with a representation of the body of Christ.

Did Christ Die on a Cross?

‘But does not the Bible teach that Christ actually died on a cross?’ one may ask. To answer this, we must look into the meanings of the two Greek words that the Bible writers used to describe the instrument of Christ’s death: stau·ros´ and xy´lon.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1979) states under the heading “Cross”: “Originally Gk. staurós designated a pointed, vertical wooden stake firmly fixed in the ground. . . . They were positioned side by side in rows to form fencing or defensive palisades around settlements, or singly they were set up as instruments of torture on which serious offenders of law were publicly suspended to die (or, if already killed, to have their corpses thoroughly dishonored).”

True, the Romans did use an instrument of execution known in Latin as the crux. And in translating the Bible into Latin, this word crux was used as a rendering of stau·ros´. Because the Latin word crux and the English word cross are similar, many mistakenly assume that a crux was necessarily a stake with a crossbeam. However, The Imperial Bible-Dictionary says: “Even amongst the Romans the crux (from which our cross is derived) appears to have been originally an upright pole, and this always remained the more prominent part.”

The book The Non-Christian Cross adds: “There is not a single sentence in any of the numerous writings forming the New Testament, which, in the original Greek, bears even indirect evidence to the effect that the stauros used in the case of Jesus was other than an ordinary stauros [pole or stake]; much less to the effect that it consisted, not of one piece of timber, but of two pieces nailed together in the form of a cross.” Christ could well have been impaled on a form of crux (stau·ros´) known as the crux simplex. That was how such a stake was illustrated by the Roman Catholic scholar Justus Lipsius of the 16th century.

What of the other Greek word, xy´lon? It was used in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Bible at Ezra 6:11. In the New World Translation this reads: “And by me an order has been put through that, as for anybody that violates this decree, a timber will be pulled out of his house and he will be impaled upon it, and his house will be turned into a public privy on this account.” Clearly, a single beam, or “timber,” was involved here.

Numerous translators of the Christian Greek Scriptures (New Testament) therefore translate Peter’s words at Acts 5:30 to read: “The God of our forefathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew, hanging him upon a stake [or, “tree,” according to the King James Version, New International Version, The Jerusalem Bible, and Revised Standard Version].” You might also wish to check how your Bible translates xy´lon at: Acts 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13; and 1 Peter 2:24.

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Even after considering such evidence that Christ really died on a stake, some may still see nothing wrong with wearing a cross. ‘It’s just an ornament,’ they may say.

Bear in mind, though, how the cross has been used down through history—as an object of pagan worship and of superstitious awe. Could wearing a cross, even as just an ornament, be harmonized with the admonition of the apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 10:14: “Therefore, my beloved ones, flee from idolatry”?

What about true Christians today? They, too, should be conscious of the need to ‘guard themselves from idols,’ as the Bible counsels. (1 John 5:21) So they do not find the cross to be an appropriate ornament. They recall Paul’s statement: “Accursed is every man hanged upon a stake,” and therefore prefer to think of Christ as a glorious enthroned King!—Galatians 3:13; Revelation 6:2.